Shopping around the world

We are joining Bacon and Fozzie in a Shopping Trip Around the World again and this month it is all our own choices.

Items to price this month:

• Random condiment of your choice. We are going with Vanilla this month one of Mom's favorite flavorings. Now Mom is a vanilla connoisseur and only buys REAL Madagascan Vanilla not the artificial or imitation stuff - it does cost a lot more at $16.99 a bottle but you don't need as much so it last for a very long time.

• Random frozen meal of your choice. The only frozen meal Mom eats is the the new Nestle Mac 'n' Cheese cups - just the classic cheese flavor. She loves these because they are just the perfect size for her. Mom waits until they are on special for $2.00 and stocks up (there are 2 cups in a pack). They are normally cost $2.75 - $2.99 depending on where you buy them. Dad loves some frozen Mexican food (Mom is allergic to any kind of peppers so they don't go to Mexican restaurants and it is the only time he gets to eat it). Dad likes El Chirrito and they cost $2.49 a dinner. 

 

• Random dessert/something sweet of your choice. Mom's favorite is something she usually makes for Sunday Breakfast but they are great at anytime - French crepes with blue berries and white chocolate cream - they are totally delicious and so easy to make. YES - we know you want the recipe :)

 

• Random Fruit of your choice. Without a doubt it has to be Ambrosia apples - at $2.99 a pound they are bit more expensive than other apples but are worth it. We are pleased to see they are now available all the time which makes Mom very happy.

 

• Random Item of your choice. This one is for us - we love our Blue Dog Bakery Cookies - especially the Dweeb as he doesn't like hard cookies and these are a soft but firm texture. They are $4.99 box but Mom always waits until they are on special at Kroger's (the only place that sells them around us) and then stocks up. On special they are between $2.99 - $3.49 a box. Mom especially loves when they are $2.99 :) Our favorite is the "more flavors" box as it has a mix of all the flavors in it. There is an assortment of big and small cookies in the box but you can buy the "paws" size if you like just small cookies and they are easily broken into smaller pieces which is a totally bad idea as the bigger the better is what we think :) And of coarse they are made right here in the USA.

Slish splash

Sometimes we come across things that are too cute not to share and this is one of them. Check out the wonderful Australian platypus. This is one of only two creatures in the whole world that lays eggs and then suckles their young with milk and looks after them until they are old enough to fend for themselves (The other is the Australian Echinda or Spiny Ant Eater - which looks a lot like a hedgehog). Now platypus are usually very shy so to see this one playing and having fun is amazing. They are very rare and have only been bred in captivity a couple of times. Mom was very lucky when she was a young to actually see some swimming in a stream in the wild. Now don't let their cuteness fool you - the males actually have poisonous spurs on their back legs (they don't kill but can make the area they jab you very very sore) They use their bills to pick up electrical life sign signals in the river bed to hunt for their favorite food little fresh water shrimp and fish.

Boom - crash - thud !

We have had a pretty awful week with sleet, freezing rain and ice. Saturday morning we heard a boom crash THUD and went to check out what happened - our next door neighbor had tried going up their driveway and instead slid back down it again and took out their letter box in the process. This is our drive way it is scattered on and as you see it was just a sheet of ice. Sadly it also caused quite a bit of damage to the back of their SUV too.  On Sunday it got just above freezing and rained in the morning which turned the ice to mush. With the help of our neighbors we were able to clear enough  of it away before it froze again for Dad to be able to get his car out. Our driveway is the only one on our cul-de-sac that is flat, all the other houses have sloping driveways and their ice just drained away when it melted. Mom was also able to get the melted slushy ice off MY deck but not before I had fun playing in it :)

Side by Side They Went .....

Of coarse it is wide enough for both of us :)

Love Your Pet Day

Mom says every day is 'love your pet day' at our house (can you believe she says we are pampered pooches) but we figure any day you get to celebrate something with a few extra treats and cuddles is a good day.

Wordless Wedneday

♪ ♫ Let it sleet - Let it sleet - Let it sleet ♫ ♪

Here in Arkansas we have been very lucky to have had a fairly mild winter to date - and compared to other parts of the USA we still are. It is a nice 24  F degrees today (which is - 4 in Celsius)  and the sun is now shining bright and we are loving the cold. Just after midnight though it started sleeting and it sleeted all the way through until about 10.00 am this morning - so instead of nice soft snow to play in - we just got lots of crunchy sleet - which is okay cause it tastes like a shaved ice to us. Mom says thank goodness we have colored heads of you wouldn't be able to see us :)  We know many of our buddies in the northern USA are really battling snow and blizzards and we have our paws crossed that you will all be safe and warm and that your electricity stays on.

My Girl Katie

Some of may not know about my girl Katie - We are the same age - both 8 (although she is a few months older than me). We have been together since we were three when I asked her to be my very first valentine. She is a total  princess who has her peeps wrapped around her little dainty paws.  She is an adventurous girl who loves to go camping with her Mom and exploring parks but being a princess she loves to be treated like royalty so she gets carried when she get tired and has the best pillows in the tent to sleep on (she also has the best pillows at home too). She loves her toys (especially the ones I like to send her) and around her neck she wears a special heart shaped tag I sent her with the word 'princess' on it.  Mom says one day if we are we are lucky we will get to meet and have fun running in the park together. Sigh - isn't she just beautiful :) She shares her blog with her Mom and you can visit her here although she does have to nip at her Mom's heals occasionally to remind her they share the blog :)

And for those of who wondering - Dweeb (Denny) doesn't have a girl friend - he says he would very much like to have one but personally I think the whole idea would scare him silly - bawwaaahhh - I think he would be like one of those fainting goats if a girl looked at him :)

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day

Warm Before The Cold

Today has been a lovely 57 degrees and tomorrow it is supposed to drop back to 37 so Mom (who is feeling better) said off to the park we go - let's get some sunshine and you have never seen 2 doggies move so fast. We whined, we barked, we ran around like crazy things and as soon as she opened the car door we jumped in so fast we almost flew out the other side. Now one of the thing we noticed straight away when we got to the MY lake was how low the water was - the arrow shows where the water level normally is. We have NEVER seen it this low in all the years we have lived here. It seems odd but our State is actually in a drought - we have hardly had any rain and no snow at all. Of coarse I convinced the Dweeb it is all those darn poopy Canada Geese that have drunk all the water - either that or all the fish ....bawwwahhh he is so gullible:)

B & W Sunday

We will MIA for a few days - Mom is having a Lupus Flareup and all her joints are stiff and swollen and she finding it hard to do pretty much of anything. Don't worry - we know how to take care good care of her and will be back soon :)

Thoughful on Thursday

We follow a couple of dog groups online and yesterday were saddened and shocked to read the attack on a lady who mentioned she had some shelties pups for sale (on a specific sheltie group). The pups are pedigree, AKC registered,  totally beautiful and obviously extremely well cared for and she has done everything a good breeder would do for getting them ready for their new forever homes. BUT people pounced on her requiring ever little detail about them be explained to the point of being rude and obnoxious and it was nothing more than THEM being breed and pedigree SNOBS.

The plain simple fact is the VAST MAJORITY of people in these groups will NEVER show or breed their dogs - and the dogs they buy will ONLY ever be pets and so to require such information is RIDICULOUS.   YES - we acknowledge that maintaining breed standards is important but the plain simple fact is that no matter what amazing show pedigree the dogs have on average breeders are lucky to get 1 or 2 pups out of a litter who are 'perfect' to breed standards. What would these breed snobs have done with the rest?  We know this first hand - being white - that we  TOTALLY do not meet not breed standards and there was a point in time when white shelties were killed at birth because we were 'not good enough' to be show quality - with little regard being given to what pawsome pets we would make.

The other thing these 'snobs' forget is that all breeds started off as 'one' thing and over years and years of breeding have changed. Dobermans were once only accepted if they were black and tan - now there are liver colored ones and many breeds had changed in such ways. Equally many breeds started out as one size and over the years and years have become smaller - such a poodles who went from standard (large) to miniature (medium) to toy (tiny).  Change happens all the time, standards change and the whims of what people like and don't like change so although not not every pup will grow up to be a 'perfect' show or pedigree dog (only about 2% do) - we do know EVERY pup  will grow up to be the PERFECT pet for a loving family if given the chance.

The perfect unperfect pair and proud of it :)

Wordless Wednesday

1,2, 3 x 3

Here we are in February which has always been a special month in Mom's life because her grandfather was born on the 1st, her brother was born on the 2nd and Mom was born on the 3rd.  BUT not only is Mom celebrating a birthday today - so is her Lassie and Benji's Mom (Teresa's)  AND  the Mayoral Dudes Stanley and Murphy.   That is a lot of HAPPY BIRTHDAY'S  and we sure hope they get lots of treats of today.

Mom is feeling very special this year because she got two presents. The first one came from Lassie and Benji's Mom who sent her a wonderful little Sheltie Pen Holder (for Mom to keep her paint brushes in)  and the second one came MY girlfriends Katie's Mom Dawn a beautiful glass elephant. THANK YOU so much - Mom says she will will treasure them forever.

Double Trouble Denny

Mom says 2 of me would be double the trouble - I think there would just twice as much of me to love :)

B & W Sunday

You can never have 2 much of a good thing :)